Unshelve Your Collection Using Celebrity Picks via Passively Recommending Books (Lila Denning)

Over on Lila Denning's blog she had a great post about Using Celebrity Picks to help you "unshelve" your Collection-- get the books out of the stacks and into the hands of readers.

I have the full text of the post below, but I want to add a few more tips to her great suggestions. First, this idea of using Celebrity Picks for displays online and in your buildings is great, but I want to challenge you to not make the display specific. Rather, I am encouraging you to find a space for an ongoing display in your buildings that is always for all Celebrity Picks, from as wide a range of celebrities as you can image, lumped all together.Think about it.

This is a display you can have up at all times and it is super easy to fill. And, the more inclusive you are of the "celebrity," the more inclusive your choices will be, the more readers who will be drawn to your display.

Now I know library workers and many of you are not happy with this. You think you HAVE to do smaller displays or online lists separated by celebrity who is recommending.

Well you are wrong.

And in fact, it is that kind of attitude which hurts all of us trying to be more inclusive and do less gate keeping. You want the books to be unshelved, to leave the library, to not linger on the shelf. ALL OF THEM. And if you don't want a book to be checked out, weed it. 

If you only do books mentioned by a specific celebrity on a display or list, you only appeal to their fans, but when that celebrity's books are mixed together with lots of others, when all you tell your patrons is that someone "celebrity" pick these books, you invite MORE people to check out the display. And I promise you, someone who came for that Taylor Swift book is going to leave with a book recommended by someone else without know it. 

You can also add a QR code to the in person display (or a link on your online displays and lists) that leads to the list of resources you used to build it the display. I suggest having that list in a Google Doc or similar, something where when you update it, the list updates. This way you have a long list of celebrity picks lists and resources always available to you (to add to the display) and for your patrons who want something specific or need even more choices. 

And level this all up by turning it into a "conversation starter to display" moment as well. Ask your patrons what celebrities they would like read recs from and/or what lists do they want to share. Help them help you to keep this display going. Click here for my conversation starter to display instructions.

This is one you might never need to take down if you do it correctly (aka my way).

Here's Lila's post to get you started.

Unshelve Your Collection - Using Celebrity Picks

One constant is that readers enjoy celebrity reading picks. We can see this every time someone like Taylor Swift is seen with a book under her arm. I have had great success with celebrity reading focused book displays. Bill Gates and President Obama are two people who come out with annual lists. When Gates recommended a book on the history of shipping containers I put it on a displays and it was checked out the first day.

You can find lists by searching for [celebrity name] reading list , favorite books, or reading recommendations. For a different take on this idea, you can create a display inspired by a particular album, artist, movie, or song. Use the title "Reading with [celebrity name] and put up those books along with titles you have that feature that actor, musician, or author. 

Billy Porter Shares His 6 Favorite Reads — Including This Viral Self-Help Book (People)

Radical Reads: Celebrity Book Recommendations

Celeb Book Recs (Instagram)

celebrities with great reading lists? (Reddit)

20 Great Celebrity Book Recommendations (Book Riot)

Amazon Book Review - Celebrity Picks

Listopia > books taylor swift has mentioned (Goodreads)

What books do we know Taylor has read and liked? (Reddit)

Bad Bunny Reading List (from a library)

 Listopia > Beyoncé Cowboy Carter Reading List (Goodreads)

Pedro Pascal's Favorite Books Just Proves This Man Has Impeccable Taste (Esquire)

12 Celebrity Book Recommendations (from a library)

Celebrities Who Read Diversely and The Books They Recommend

The Shameless Book Club: Jacob Elordi 

Pop Star Picks: Books, TV & Films Recommended By Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Zendaya & More

Book Recommendations from Celebrities (Instagram)

Click here for more from Lila Denning's Blog, Passively Recommending Books. 

NYT Best Books of the Year (So Far) and Their Enhanced Genre Coverage

The New York Times Books section just released their 2026 Best Books of the Year (So Far) (gift link). I love a few things about this list and all of it comes from the NYT Books sections concerted effort to be more inclusive of all types of books and reading experiences.

First, the list is focused NOT on the quality of writing alone. Yes that matters, but they have proclaimed the mission statement for how they chose these books in the subtitle for the article: "The nonfiction and novels we can't stop thinking about." This statement makes it clear that the reader's experience matters.

Second, and related, in the past, the NYT would pride themselves on picking the most obscure books. It was their badge of honor. The staff of the section has had a major overhaul in the last few years and the results are showing. The NYT Books section and their lists are serious about connecting readers with the best books for them, full stop. And in fact, obscure is now seen as a bad choice, unless the writers believe it has a wide appeal that has been overlook by others.

Third, and also related, there are genre titles here, and more than one token choice. Genre works can be among the best even when considered across all literature. And this list has genre titles, books that have long queues at your library right now. The inclusion of more genre in the NYT best lists is directly correlated to their increased genre coverage in general. I wrote about this, here, in February when the NYT released their Romance glossary. And then last week, they added a Fantasy column to their regular rotation of Sunday Book Review section genre coverage. They are now regularly covering the most popular genres in fiction and nonfiction, and that coverage has led to the best of those books being added to overall best lists. Knowledge matters. If they are paying writers to cover genre titles, obviously the cream will rise to the top and the very best will be allowed to break through into the over all best conversation, a fact we know well at libraries.

Fourth, the list is not huge. It is focused. If someone wanted to read them all, they could. And they have been adding a feature throughout all of their lists that takes advantage of the fact that many people have a digital subscription to the NYT now. You can click to say you have read a book or that you want to read it and it will be saved in your account. All of this encourages people to find a book that they will actually read. And get ready, because they will come to us to get their copy to read. This is why I have included gift links, so even if you do not have access, you can see these lists.

And I think that is the final thing to say here. The NYT used to be focused on telling us about books you would probably never read. Sure they'd throw readers a bone or two over the course of the year, but they absolutely did not prioritize the reader. Not any more. Now, they want you to read the books they are reviewing, they are covering them and including a wide swath of titles to encourage you to give more titles a try, and they are slowly re-building trust with lists that SHOW they care about all types of books and readers.

With the closing of many newspaper sections that had serious coverage of books, the NYT actively trying to fill in all the gaps. Most libraries have digital access to the paper. Please make sure you are using their Books coverage as one of your regular resources, especially if you haven't visited in a while. And get ready for all of the titles mentioned in their Books coverage (especially the genre and best coverage) to lead to longer holds queues.

Resource Reminder: Forward Reviews

I want to start the week with a reminder that reviews are not only for those of you who make purchasing decisions. 

Reviews are a recourse to help you identify titles that your patrons may enjoy as well. In some libraries, you might find a great suggestion for a patron and then you can pass it on to be bought by the collections people. But some cannot. I am just making it known that I understand that before moving on.

Okay, back to using reviews as a resource.

We are all aware of using Booklist, LJ, and PW reviews as a resource, especially those of us who use NoveList because they appear in the records for a book in that database. We read them to get plot info, appeal, and readalike options. It is quick and reliable way to have human provided information.

But, do you remember to also check Forward Reviews? 

Foreword Reviews has been out there since 1998 providing trade book reviews of the best titles from independent presses, in print and online.

What its Forward Reviews? Here is information (edited by me) from their About page:

Since our inception in 1998, Foreword Reviews has never strayed from its mission to help booksellers and librarians discover great books from indie presses. At a time when the trade media devoted nearly all its attention on the larger corporate publishers like Random House and Simon & Schuster, the debut of Foreword Reviews introduced a new stream of quality reviews of independently published books to the wholesalers and distributors where booksellers and librarians order their books. The United States has always recognized the importance of a fiercely independent press—one that embraces freedom of thought, multiculturalism, religious diversity, and an understanding that profit motive shouldn’t be the only criteria used when deciding whether to publish a book. The fact that Foreword’s business model was built around indie presses caused many heads to turn in the book industry.

Foreword Reviews is dedicated to the “art” of book reviewing. With a review team of talented writers who are experts in their fields, our book-industry journal is designed for a discerning readership—in recognition of the fact that quality paper, generous use of white space, and creative design encourages a time investment by readers.

Foreword’s reviews are not annotated summaries of books. Instead, they are insightful critiques, robust in length and thoughtful. That is why our readership loves us so much. And why our reviews are licensed to wholesalers like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bowker, Cengage, Ebsco, and others. Librarians use databases of reviews provided by these wholesalers or distributors to choose books for their stacks. It is unusual for them to shop outside of these vendors, and having a review attached to a book is almost always a minimum requirement for a sale, especially at public libraries.

Thanks to the loyal support of scores of indie presses—from established publishers smaller than “the big five,” to university presses, and even some self-published authors—Foreword Reviews is primarily supported by advertising revenues, not expensive annual subscriptions or newsstand sales. The endorsement of these publishers has kept our message vital to a loyal and growing group of booksellers and librarians, distributors and wholesalers, who don’t just want to offer a media-driven list of bestsellers to their customers and patrons. Foreword’s foundation was built on reviewing literary fiction, poetry, children’s picture books, translations, and topics like climate change, diversity, and multiculturalism. Most importantly, we strive to promote voices that are unheard, overlooked, or even silenced.

In the late 1990s, when Foreword launched, indie presses were rarely covered by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus, Booklist,and School Library Journal. In fact, during publishing conferences like the Independent Book Publishing Association and PubWest, review personnel from these magazines often openly discouraged audience members from sending their books in for review! Soon after our debut, some of the most prestigious literary presses started to get coverage in PW and the other magazines. Some of these presses included Milkweed, Grove Atlantic, Algonquin for fiction and Sourcebooks, Workman, Amacom and some university presses for nonfiction. Not surprisingly, after budgets at the big five publishers started drying up, and after years of seeing Foreword supported by the very presses they were ignoring, the industry review journals started to cover indies with more flourish.

In the past, “indie” mostly meant self-published authors. Now indie means anyone not published by HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, and Hachette. Larger indie presses include Bloomsbury, Sourcebooks, WW Norton, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oxford University, and a dozen or so others.

Indies are not for everyone. Foreword is not for everyone. There are many booksellers who are only able to stay alive because they dedicate themselves to trying to keep up with the chains and stocking bestsellers. Same holds true for smaller libraries. But Foreword is essential for the librarians and indie booksellers who are working to establish themselves as a special place in their communities. They value what indie presses are doing in literature: quality assured by editorial teams who are all about keeping the art of publishing alive.

And it is all free. Quality reviews of many books you cannot find in the trade journals. From any page you can sort by:

• ALL BOOK REVIEWS
• STARRED REVIEWS
• EDITOR'S PICKS
• NEWEST RELEASES
• CLARION REVIEWS
• BY GENRE
• And "Genre" means many fiction, and even more nonfiction genres to choose from, a section on Comics and Graphic Novels, and all youth categories.

For example, a click on "Horror" under the fiction genres gets you this.

I tend to look at Forward Reviews on a regular schedule, about once a month. I use it to read reviews, to see trends as they emerge, and to find outside the box recommendations for patrons or myself.

I really enjoy that there are separate tabs for starred reviews and editor's picks. That gives me 2 categories of books that rise to the top.

Add Forward Reviews to your resources, use it to help readers, and make it part of your own continuing education as you are updating your own knowledge on a specific genre.

To help remind you, I have added this post and Forward Reviews itself as a resource on my Free Genre Resources document that is always available here and on my 10 Rules page (Rule 7).  

Library Journal's 150th Anniversary Coverage: Sure Bets (Part 1)

Library Journal is turning 150 this year and they have been celebrating with special coverage. One of my favorite things they have been doing is publishing lists of "Sure Bets" by genre based on  a survey they did with library workers last fall. I wrote about the survey here.

For each genre (or format) they have not only compiled the top titles, but also, they have provided a spreadsheet of every submitted title from the survey!

I need to write that last part again-- LJ did a survey of library workers from across the country and asked for their SURE BET titles across all popular reading areas and are now giving all of us access to all of the answers! 

Sure bets are a category of books that every library worker has some kind of list for. At my library we pooled our knowledge and kept a list that we could all consult. We shared with each other, but it was very informal. We all need a list of those books that would appeal to wide swath of readers, at our fingertips, that we can turn to on a moment's notice and grab a suggestion.

AND NOW WE DO THANKS TO LJ.

They are still revealing more, but here are the ones they have released so far. Remember, it goes beyond the spotlit titles, download the full lists.

• Graphic Novels
• Poetry
• Mystery 
• Suspense & Thrillers
• Romance
• Pop Fiction

Again, there are still more to come. Click here to see all of the genres which the poll covered. Please keep checking back. Later in the year, I will post more as a reminder.

Download the spreadsheets. Use them to make displays. Do the conversation starter exercise to ask your staff and patrons to add titles to the already existing spreadsheet. Get those titles up in a "Great Reads You May Have Missed" display. Consider making said display a permanent one. If you keep asking staff and patrons for their favorite reads, titles they recommend to everyone they know, etc...., you can keep expanding the spreadsheet of possible titles. And you will never run out of backlist titles to keep adding because as the new titles move into the background, those that struck a chord will make their return on you "Great Reads" display.

You can use this link to pull up all of LJ's 150th coverage. Also click here for the poll methodology.

Don't Miss But Won't I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao

Yes the pun was intended in the title.

It is not very often that a book I know nothing about ends up completely blowing me away. The last time I can remember this happening in such a visceral way was in 2017 when I read In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson (click here for a discussion of that).

It is infrequent but it is glorious. It is a reader's high we all chase. 

A few months ago I had this experience again when I read But Won't I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao for my April 2026 Horror Review Column in Library Journal. 

You all saw I gave it a star here, but that star was alongside books by Paul Tremblay and Nat Cassidy, so I worry that how great this book really is will get lost. So for a few weeks now, I have been planning to pair a post about this book here on the general blog with a giveaway of my ARC on the Horror blog to make sure more people see my full thoughts on this novel.

You all, I LOVED THIS BOOK. That title....read it carefully. It may seem awkward, but no, that word placement is intentional. And, as you read, you realize that and it is awesome. The plot is both on the realistic side of SF and totally horrifyingly out of this world. 

Here is the link to all of my notes with access to my draft LJ review via Goodreads. However, to make sure you actually read my thoughts and get this May 2026 release on order right now, I am posting it below as well:

This book is WOW! Great title too. Disorientation of the title, the confusion, is perfect for the story

Three Words That Describe This Book: maternal/body horror, slightly askew to our world, discomfiting

Other words: compelling from the first page, huge twist, visceral, original, thought provoking, intense, honest, "rebirth."

Draft Review: The very best speculative fiction takes readers out of their world, telling a story meant to help them grapple with the important questions staring them in their real world faces. Tsao demonstrates this in her alternative reality science fiction-body horror-thriller, asking readers to contemplate how society fails mothers, the horror of following the status quo, and most provocatively, what happens when you are your own victim? Vivi, a Chinese-Indonesian living in Australia lives in a world where human mothers not only birth a child, but they also experience their own visceral rebirth, an event that will shock and trouble readers, but here it is seen as necessary to give mothers the super human strength they need to raise children. Vivi’s rebirth had complications leaving her alone, exhausted, and with a baby to care for. Readers hang on every detail, falling easily into the world, and its complex, flawed, but sympathetic characters, never able to shake the unsettling tone set by the title, not even close to ready for the twist when it drops. A master class in storytelling that will leave readers, if not reborn, forever changed for the experience. 

Verdict: Tsao gives readers a terrifying, raw, and honest look at motherhood in the vein of horror titles like Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moutlon, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Push by Ashley Audrain.

Before I get to the set up and how the story is told I need to applaud the author and editors here. The author, for writing a story about postpartum life -- even if you don't sink to depression-- and how being a new mother is disorienting, how it changes your body, and how it can change who you are-- to yourself and others. 

The editor for NOT giving in to the urge to make this book easier on the reader. So many books I read have a "prologue" or let out key details too quickly because editors (and authors) do not trust readers to let the author tell the story and have the story come to you. This book withholds key details from the start, but they are doled out slowly. But there is always enough to keep the reader going here, even when they are not sure where the story is leading them.

This book has a huge and satisfying twist that is the level of mind-blow as Gone Girl was back in 2015 -- a different twist but on that level. And it allows everything to fall into place after.

There is a coda that the book needs. I saw it as a chance for Vivi's son to heal and understand, yes, but more importantly, for readers to also process everything they just read and all of their feelings about the book, the slightly askew world it presents, and how that makes you think about motherhood right now, in our world whether you are a child or a mother. You need a moment to reflect about everything in this book-- from the literal plot to everything it is saying about how the world treats mothers. Without that buffer/coda/space, this book would not land as well. I should be clear, it is not a sappy coda, and it DOES NOT tie up all the loose ends-- in fact it leave a huge one dangling-- but it is there to bring the reader back down and allow them to emotionally reset. Phew. Really brilliant.

Now as a horror novel-- wow! This takes the body horror of pregnancy and child birth to a whole new level of horror. 

The less you know about this book going in the better but know that this book is visceral and honest. It uses a speculative alternative reality to our world to 

It is all told from the perspective of Chinese- Indonesians who have emigrated to Australia. The cultures of all 3 are discussed. That frame was very specific and yet the story is universal. 

A great question here besides what do we owe mothers, how can we help them, how society fails them. Tsao also asks readers to contemplate-- What happens when you are your own victim? What is the price of blindly doing things the way every one does them? How hard it is to question the status quo.

Another brilliant thing about this book-- the main characters here-- none of them are all good or all bad. They are VERY morally gray and yet readers will sympathize with them all. That is hard to do.

The set up-- the less you know the better. This is an alternate reality to ours -- not near future-- parallel. In this world human mothers, after they give birth to a child, experience a rebirth. (But that rebirth is a horror story all onto its own.) The rebirth gives new mothers the super strength they need to raise new humans. They can do it all-- no sleep, no strollers. They can carry and juggle it all at once. Our protagonist and narrator Vivi well she had a "hitch" with her rebirth and it did not take. She is a disabled new mother and society has not time for that. She is our window into this world. We hear her story beginning when she leaves her husband and starts over with the help of an old family friend.

As we follow Vivi, details about this world and what she specifically went through are slowly doled out-- but not so slowly that you want to stop reading. Rather, it is just the right amount sot hat you get to know Vivi and her 2 year old son Cloud. Also it is the right speed of all of the details so that you have time to get settled into this world that is slightly family but not completely. We get flashbacks to gain more understanding. But even as things are explained, it doesn't feel 100% right. We are missing something. What is it? Ahh, once that info is dropped-- the rest of the book falls into place and you will race to the end to finish it.

I cannot stress enough how visceral and troubling the "rebirth" is both on a gross out level but also on a psychological and societal level. 

For readers of raw, visceral, physically and emotionally upsetting, thought provoking, and honest dark speculative fiction about motherhood such as Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moutlon, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Push by Ashley Audrain.

This are my thoughts on But I Won't Miss Me. Now head on over to the Horror blog and get yourself entered to win a copy of this book.

Tana French Readalikes From a Variety of Humans as an Example to Help you Find Readalikes for Any Author

Tana French is one of those authors we library workers love to suggest for a variety of reasons.

First, she writes well constructed, twisty crime stories with great characters. There are so many entry points where a reader will get hooked by her storytelling. This means we have a very wide swath of potential readers to suggest her books to. Seriously, when in doubt or when I am stuck, to the FRE shelf I go.

Second, this ability to easily suggest French is also aided by the fact that except for three books in the Cal Hooper series. All of her other books do not have to be read in any order. Yes the Dublin Murder Squad books are numbered, but they are all related stories in the same world, it does not matter in which order you read them. This means, most days you can confidently go to the shelf and find a Tana French book there for a new reader to discover.

Third, not for nothing, they are also always great on audio. Again, another place where you might find a book available immediately. For example, on my Libby, there are currently 8 French titles without a wait on audio. And one is the first Cal Hooper, the rest are various Dublin Murder Squad.

Over the years, I have not been alone in going to French when I needed a sure bet title for fans of crime, literary fiction, psychological suspense, thrillers, suspense and honestly, those who had no idea what they wanted to read as long as it was a "good read," especially for those going on vacation. The success we have all had suggesting French, means that we are starting to see readers who have exhausted all her title.

It is a good problem to have, right? We have helped to make her a must read author. 

Since the last Cal Hooper is out and there are holds lists everywhere, and because many of those on hold have already read everything else, today I am sharing some HUMAN created resources for you to use to find new pathways for French readers to follow. But I also want you to understand, these specific resources are here for you to use as an example of a pathway you can take to help any reader find readalikes for their favorite authors while they are waiting for a new title.

• Love Tana French? Read These Books Next via the NYT (gift link): What I love about this extensive list is that it probes all of the different appeal entry points who why a reader might like French and then provides books that will scratch all this different itches.
• Five Reddit lists of Tana French readalikes: Click that link and a google search will run of results from different Reddit threads across various Reddit boards. What I love about these threads is that the people all write about WHY they like French. You can really narrow down a great option for a variety of different readers.
• If You Like Tana French via Seattle Public Library: anyone can access the title list, but only their card holders can place a hold. Also this is a library example. There are many. Search the largest library near you to see if they have a list you can use to build tour own.
• Goodreads Members Who Read Tana French Also Read, a list: Not as nuanced a list but it is crowdsourced info from real reader habits. One thing I have learned, readers' brains do not follow a plot-able algorithm. Sometimes they just like what they like, and this list showcases that fact with suggestions I have not seen on other lists. Sometimes we can try to match appeal factors all day, but people just like what they like and seeing some data that supports that is enough of a reason to make the match.
• Tana French herself recommends: Author recs of other authors is one of my 5 Resources you cannot live without. Here is one example (via Elle magazine) which I found via a Google search for  "Tana French recommends"
• Click here for a Literature Map for Tana French. The closer someone's name is to hers the more likely they think it is the reader will like them. These maps are created by users in a Pandora style of gathering recs and clicks. I love to try the authors on the fringes in these cases because they are your wildcard options. There was at least one reader who made this connection. Why not explore that one with your patrons. It will give them an outside the box suggestion that they never could have found without your help. In this case, I really like the Celeste Ng option. I never would have thought of that, but I know more than a few readers who which it is SPOT ON.
• And if you have NoveList access, don't just pop the author's name in and go with only the readalike authors that come up first. (I mean you should do that first, but you can do more.) You should also play around with the appeal factors, click on a few, and see what results you get. This will expand the search from the top author hits. And then you can narrow down further from that expanded list as well.

This is just a short list of options, but I made sure to pull them from completely different spaces; from resources that use a different method, but all of which rely on human input. This way you can see the range of ways you can find readalikes as well as providing you with resources for French specifically.

Apply this logic and this breadth of human created resources to help your readers find a readalike for their favorite authors. 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.

Each year one of my favorite lists is the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 list. It's not that I think you have to be young to be a great writer, but I love how writers who have won National Book Awards and even some who have have this honor get to pick the new class each year. 

More about the honor and its mission here. From that page:

In 2006, the National Book Foundation established the 5 Under 35 prize to recognize outstanding debut fiction writers under the age of 35. 5 Under 35 has identified some of the most celebrated young writers working today. Previous honorees include Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Brit Bennett, Akwaeke Emezi, Angela Flournoy, Phil Klay, Valeria Luiselli, C.E. Morgan, Téa Obreht, ZZ Packer, Karen Russell, Justin Torres, Bryan Washington, Claire Vaye Watkins, Tiphanie Yanique, and Charles Yu. 

5 Under 35 honorees are selected by authors who have been recognized by either the National Book Awards or 5 Under 35 itself. To be eligible for the prize, writers must have published their first and only book of fiction—either a story collection or a novel—within the last five years. Honorees are chosen at the discretion of the selectors; as such, publishers cannot nominate an honoree or submit a book for consideration.

This year’s honorees are Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, author of Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare (Bloomsbury); Anika Jade Levy, author of Flat Earth (Catapult); Carrie R. Moore, author of Make Your Way Home (Tin House); Maggie Su, author of Blob: A Love Story (Harper); and Stephanie Wambugu, author of Lonely Crowds (Little, Brown).

Links for the titles line up with the links provided on the landing page. 

I love this list for its RA Service implications and for what you can learn and use from the backlist. Below I explain why you should like and use this list all year long too.

First, this list is awesome. It is not just the young authors who are being highlighted, the established authors who selected each of them are also a great resource. You get 10 suggested authors from this 5 person list. 

Which leads to second, the established authors are your conversation starter and readalike stepping stone. So when you see: 

2026 5 Under 25 nominee Blob: A Love Story by Maggie Su nominated by Charles Yu, the author of four books, including Interior Chinatown, winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. In 2007, he was selected to be a 5 Under 35 Honoree by Richard Powers. 

You are literally seeing how this award works. Yu was selected by Richard Powers, he went on to sin the National Book Award, and now he is in turn picking a new author to keep the cycle going. Proven authors suggesting new authors.

Now you can confidently suggest Maggie Su's Blob to fans of Charles Yu and Richard Powers. This fits in with one of my "5 Resources You Cannot Live Without" from my 10 Rules of Basic RA page-- Author Recs of Other Authors. Click here for a longer post where I explain why authors recommending other authors is a near perfect readalike option. 

Third, the backlist is amazing. Seriously. Even more amazing than backlists usually are, and many of you know how excited I get about the backlist in general. As you can see from just the point above this one, I got 2 backlist authors from one current nominee. But wait, there's more.

From the landing page for this year's winners, you can easy go backward, year by year, with a drop down menu. I scanned many of the lists and WOW, did they identify some amazing authors who are household names now.  Yes, there are a few who haven't broke through, but it is amazing how many have. You can easily use the backlist list of winners to help readers identify good under the radar reads, especially for your literary fiction and book club selection readers. You can also make a display of current and past winners.

I know some people will say, Becky these authors are emerging and at my library I can barely afford to get the established authors. But it would be a mistake to ignore these "emerging voices" for many reasons-- 3 of which I gave you here. 

Don't sleep on new voices. They will have wide appeal on their own AND you can use establish  authors to match them with readers through displays, verbal suggestions, or even by pairing them as the website does. 

Today's new voices are our future best sellers. And some of these authors, like Su with her novel, Blob: A Love Story, are already well on their way. 

Welcome to National Library Week and EveryLibrary's New Resource You Have to Checkout

Click this image to enter the National
Library Week landing page

 

Welcome to National Library Week, an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries and library professionals play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.

Click here to to enter the ALA's National Library Week and access the toolkit to celebrate.

Also, click here for the State of America's Libraries 2025 Report.

Now look, I know in libraries we started preparing for National Library Week months in advance, but I am posting here, today, as it begins for a few reasons.

One, be aware that your patrons are getting information about National Library Week from across the media spectrum. Michael Threets and people from the ALA will be on TV, radio, newspapers, and all over their social media feeds. 

Two, know the official messaging by familiarizing yourself with the official page. Know this messaging because you will hear it repeated by the people who visit. Be familiar with what they are going to be hearing and make sure you are ready to respond.

Three, there will be new people interacting with the library this week. People who are not library users will become our audience. Please remember that many people are sure how today's library works. They might be surprised by how vibrant and (quite honestly) loud our spaces are. Make sure you are explaining how things work clearly. Don't use abbreviations and lingo Clearly explain every step. You might think Libby is easy, for example, but to someone who is coming to the library the first time in many years, even if they use things like Kindle and Audible, it is a completely different platform and a completely different mentality with how to use it. Remember, the idea of waiting for items and finding something else while you wait is not something non-library users are used to. 

They also aren't used to the pre-paid nature of library use. And that is point four. Don't tell them your services are free. Library services and materials are all PREPAID. Everyone coming in has already paid for what you are offering. Remind them of that. NEVER tell them it is free because that is NOT true. Every single person in your community has paid for their library whether they use it or not. Applaud them for getting their money's worth. Remind them of the amazing return on investment (ROI), but NEVER, EVER tell them it is free. 

[I have a much longer post about this here.]

So that is why you need to know about National Library Week going into today. 

National Library Week is also a time that other groups announce new initiatives, and EveryLibrary has a really good one. Read. Lead. Run. From the landing page:

Libraries are among the most trusted public institutions in the United States, yet the policies that shape their future are set by elected officials. City councils decide local budgets. School boards determine whether certified school librarians are funded. State legislatures write the laws that protect or restrict intellectual freedom. Congress determines federal investment in literacy, broadband access, and national library programs.

Here’s why this matters: nearly 70% of races in the United States go unopposed. That means too many decisions about libraries are being made without champions like you in the room. When library supporters run for office, we change what’s possible for funding, access, and the future of our communities.

You already believe in libraries. Now it’s time to lead.

When readers and library supporters like you step into leadership roles, they bring the values of access, curiosity, and service to the heart of government, helping shape the future of their communities.

That's why people like you need to run for office today!

EveryLibrary helps public, school, and college libraries win funding at the ballot box, ensuring stable funding and access to libraries for generations to come. We also support grassroots groups across the country defend and support their local library against book banning, illicit political interference, and threats of closure. So it makes sense that their next step is to help Library supports run for Boards.

As someone who ran for my Library Board and was elected 6 times, and as someone who has taken the time to inspire others to run (more than I can count on 1 hand are currently serving), I wholeheartedly support this.

Please visit Read. Lead. Run and think about how you can take the next step to be part of the solution. Democracy requires average people step up and lead. What are you waiting for? Help and advice? Well now you have it. 

Celebrate Nation Library Week for yourself (not just your patrons) by seriously considering how you can take the next step in your support of your local school or public library. Read. Lead. Run.

New Pew Research Report on Reading Habits Is Great, Yes, But Don't Sleep On All of Their Reports

The Pew Research Center is a great resource for information about how American interact with their world on a variety of topics, and their reports are always FREE. From their "About" page:

Pew Research Center is made up of intellectually curious people from across many fields, places and backgrounds. For decades, our expertise, best-in-class methods and commitment to high-quality, fact-based research have made us a trusted resource for leaders and everyday people around the world.  

Our mission

We generate a foundation of facts that enriches public dialogue and supports sound decision-making. We are nonprofit, nonpartisan and nonadvocacy. We value independence, objectivity, accuracy, rigor, humility, transparency and innovation. 

What do we mean by nonprofit? We are funded from charitable dollars. All our resources serve our mission. We do not do any work for hire. 

What do we mean by nonpartisan? We maintain strict impartiality and never align with any political group, candidate or ideology.

What do we mean by nonadvocacy? We study people’s views and behaviors without an agenda. We don’t make policy recommendations or offer solutions. We design our work to explain the public, rather than try to persuade.

Read more about our mission.  

Our research

We study a wide range of topics.

We decide what to study based on questions people are asking, changes happening in the world and gaps where clear information is hard to find. We focus on areas where our expertise, resources and intellectual curiosity can help people better understand the world around them.   

We take our responsibility to inform the public seriously. Every step of our work goes through multiple layers of review to ensure it is high quality and fact based. We share our data and survey questions so that all can see the process and how we arrived at our results.   

Our methods

We ask thousands of people of various ages, ethnicities and backgrounds to share what they think in a survey. We listen to what they say about jobs, politics, religion, education, health and more. We bring those voices together and summarize everything we hear. Before we publish anything, our work goes through several rounds of careful review to make sure it upholds our commitment to high-quality, fact-based research.    

Read more about our methods. 

Click through to read the entire page.

They have frequently turned their inquiries to topics surrounding books and reading, and this month they released one of those reports entitled, "Americans still opt for print books over digital or audio versions; few are in book clubs" at this link.

Please click through and read the entire report because there is A LOT you can learn here, and quite honestly, only you know which parts speak to your local experience, but a few highlights include:

• Print continues to be the only book format used by a majority of Americans.Roughly two-thirds of adults say they have read a physical book in the past 12 months, according to our October survey.
• Much smaller shares say they have read an e-book or listened to an audiobook in the past year.
• While most Americans have read at least one book in the past year, how many they read varies widely. As of October 2025:
• 38% of U.S. adults say they read one to five books in the past year
• 13% read six to 10
• 10% read 11 to 20
• 14% read more than 20
• And 25% of Americans say they read none.
• [Becky addition here: this is sayin 75% of Americans read 1 book!]

Note: Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.

Please click through and especially look at the analysis and methodology which I linked to immediately above this line. It is at the end of the report. 

And finally, don't sleep on the older reports they have done on books and reading. You can access some of them in the right gutter of the report. But also use the menu bar to explore many of their other reports. Remember, we are serving readers and their likes and interests in general are driven by more than their reading habits. Since the Pew Research Center's reports are driven by intellectual curiosity and then focus on human behavior, there is a lot you can learn from many of their reports*

Don't keep your head stuck in a book. We need to be intellectually curious in order to best serve our patrons, to anticipate things they might be interested in by exploring the world outside of books. Go visit the Pew Research Center to stoke that curiosity, find out what Americans in general are thinking about, discover how they act, and then use that knowledge to think about how you are delivering your RA Service in a way that reflects actual behavior.

*This is also why AI cannot do our job. I wrote about this in more detail here.)

PW Summer Reads 2026: An Epic Year Round Resource

The PW Summer Reads 2026 database is now live! Always the first one of the year to pop up, PW's Summer Reads is also one  of the best YEAR ROUND Resources hands down. Why? Well let's start with a screen shot of the main page.

The PW Summer Reads database is more than the sum of its parts, those parts being the wide swath of categories offered. Every genre, nonfiction, and books for kids of all ages, each has their own tab with picks.

As you can see, they also make backlist access of every Summer Reads and year end Best Books list going back to 2012 easily accessible from the top of the page.

Let that sink in.... EVERY SINGLE SUMMER READS AND PW YEAR END BEST LIST IN ONE PLACE. This is AWESOME!

Nowhere will you find a resource that puts this many "sure bet" options in front of you so easily. There are literally hundreds of titles here, at your fingertips, both old and new, that you can confidently suggest to readers immediately. And so many readers. Readers who read across all age levels [down to infants] and in just about every genre. 

And, since every title is annotated, you also have a book talk [or annotation] for each title right there. You don't have to have read the book to suggest it. [Reminder: Use the Words of Others.]

I could keep gushing about how much I love this resource but I would rather you played around with it yourself.

Click through, check out the upcoming titles, but also look back at older titles, read the annotations, check genres you love and those you don't normally read, especially those you don't normally read because you will learn much about the current state of that genre [trends, popular authors] this year and by going back a few years. You can literally watch trends as they happened. You can both get access to some great sure bet suggestions AND brush up on your genre knowledge all in one place.

Spend some time really getting to know this resource. And then use it-- all of it-- including past years and both summer and year end lists-- to make your own lists for your readers. Make displays and lists [online and in the building], make suggested reading lists by genre, by year, by whatever you want. Just embrace the wealth of information available to you with one click and help readers in ways they would not think to help themselves.

Proof reading this post before publishing it, I realize how many times I am repeating myself about using the entirety of the information that PW is making available here, but I also know from years of suggesting this resource to people that you don't always listen to me. And so, I will keep beating this drum of using best lists all year long and especially checking the backlist until I run out of breath [or strength to type].

Go check out this database of "sure bet" reads for any season, and keep it bookmarked for use anytime you need a solid suggestion [especially for those hard to satisfy readers].

It is NOT just for Summer.